The present invention relates generally to display devices. Most particularly the present invention relates to corrugated paper display devices used for exhibiting packaged material particularly rigid containers of liquid or solid materials.
It is common for display devices of commodities to be sold in retail food or department stores to be used for what is often referred to as an end aisle stacker. Such stacker of the commodities is positioned up against the usual permanent shelves forming an aisle through which the prospective purchaser passes. These end aisle stackers are particularly important because the traffic flow of the prospective purchasers across or around the end of the aisle is greater than the traffic flow through any one particular aisle. For this reason the end aisle stackers are important elements in the display of commodities to be sold as they command a preferred location up against the end of the aisle but may of course be useful in any other location.
Often times, an end aisle stacker would constitute simply a base and rear panel forming a frame for the goods stacked in rows one upon another in front of the back panel that is situated against the end of the aisle. With such rows or stacks of commodities the shapes of the containers and the spacing provided between adjacent containers in any row often requires the use of a tray or divider positioned between adjacent vertical rows forming the stack of the goods being displayed.
These dividers are often made of inexpensive materials such as corrugated paper however they are designed to be reused after the first stack has been removed by the purchasers and the stacker reloaded. Experience has shown, however, that the dividers are frequently disposed of by the food store clerks after each row of the stack has been removed. The resupplier of the stacker who is usually the detail or route man employed by the manufacturer or bottler of the goods being stacked must in such cases maintain a continuing supply of these dividers thus adding to the expense of the display but more importantly requiring the route man to have always at hand a supply of these dividers. In many instances, such a supply of dividers is not maintained.
Without a sufficient supply of new dividers to replace those that were discarded, it is not possible to stack the commodities in rows thus defeating the purpose of the end aisle stacker.
Simply retaining the trays as dividers on the display unit could be considered to be a possible solution. There are, for instance, a number of display racks that have been used in the past for stacking goods and yet not permit the trays or dividers to be removed and discarded. Among this type of display rack may be included Abrams U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,928,551, Shiels 2,982,419, Pendergrast 2,992,742 and 3,045,831, 3,137,251.
These patents mentioned above are simply examples of a great many patents relating to display racks that have a spring urged pivoted shelf. Each of these racks, however, is expensive to manufacture and often does not lend itself to the use of pictorial representations as well as a display rack of corrugated paper.
Corrugated paper display units are well known and have been used for many years. Such racks may be imprinted with attractive designs and representations that are appealing to the eye of the prospective purchaser and therefore are frequently viewed by the retail store as a desirable adjunct to the permanent aisle displays. These corrugated paper display units may be used as end aisle stackers but there is no provision for retaining the required dividers or trays between adjacent rows. More importantly, there never has been any corrugated paper display stacker known in the art to have spring urged pivoted trays upon which the adjacent rows of the stack are positioned. The desirability of the continuously upwardly pivoted shelf is manifest to expose the filled shelf below after stock has been removed from the adjacent upper shelf yet no such display stacker formed from corrugated paper has been made available to the industry.